And the winner is ... Synovus with 28 Greenwich Excellence Awards

In what some might call the Oscars of the banking world, Synovus Financial Corp. brought home this week 28 Greenwich Excellence Awards for 2016 in the areas of small business and middle market banking.

More than 600 financial institutions were evaluated by Greenwich Associates for the annual honors, with 30 banks receiving small business banking awards and 37 banks garnering middle market banking awards.

Synovus, headquartered in Columbus and parent company of Columbus Bank and Trust, was second in total awards to San Antonio, Texas-based Frost Bank, which received 33 altogether. A year ago, Synovus earned 26 total Greenwich Awards, which was the third-highest total among U.S. banks.

Kessel Stelling, Synovus chairman and chief executive officer, said this year’s awards haul shows his bank’s commitment to developing relationships with customers and offering customized financial service and advice.

“As the vital small business and middle market segments become increasingly competitive, Synovus’ culture, people and our focus on consultative relationships continue to make the difference,” he said in a statement. “We are proud and honored to be recognized by Greenwich Associates for providing such exceptional service.”

The Synovus awards for small business banking came in the areas of overall satisfaction, proactively providing advice, branch satisfaction, industry expertise, likelihood to recommend, and several more in “cash management” — overall satisfaction, accuracy of operations, customer service, ease of product implementation, product capabilities, sales specialist performance and cash management specialist/quality of advice.

Synovus’ middle-market honors came in the areas of overall satisfaction, proactively providing advice, industry expertise, likelihood to recommend and in “cash management” — overall satisfaction, accuracy of operations, customer service, functionality and range of online service and product capabilities.

Greenwich Associates unveiled the award winners Tuesday and Wednesday. In determining which banks received them, it conducted roughly 30,000 interviews nationwide with small businesses that have sales between $1 million and $10 million, and middle-market firms with sales ranging from $10 million to $500 million.

Stamford, Conn.-based Greenwich Associates is a "market intelligence" and research firm catering to the financial industry. Its awards are aimed at recognizing banks with top-quality service.

Synovus oversees about $30 billion in assets through its 28 locally branded bank divisions in Georgia, Alabama, Florida, South Carolina and Tennessee.

(2016 Small Business Award winners)

(2016 Middle Market Award winners)

This story was originally published February 17, 2017 at 2:39 PM with the headline "And the winner is ... Synovus with 28 Greenwich Excellence Awards."